John Sebrie Watts

John Sebrie Watts (January 19, 1816 – June 11, 1876) was an American attorney, jurist, and politician who held office in the state of Indiana and in the territory of New Mexico.^[1]

Watts was born in Boone County, Kentucky.^[1] The youngest of 11 children, Watts was raised in Indiana.^[2] He graduated from Indiana College (which later became Indiana University) in 1835,^[3] studied law, was admitted to the bar, and became a practicing attorney.^[1]

Watts served as a member of the Indiana House of Representatives in 1846 and 1847. He then became an associate justice of the United States court in the territory of New Mexico in 1851. In 1854, Watts resigned his post and returned to the practice of law.^[1]

Watts was elected as a Republican delegate to the Thirty-seventh Congress (March 4, 1861 – March 3, 1863). He was also a delegate to the 1864 Republican National Convention. Watts helped to equip troops for the Union Army during the Civil War.^[1]

On July 11, 1868, Watts was appointed chief justice of the New Mexico Territorial Supreme Court by President Andrew Johnson. Watts served on the Territorial Supreme Court for one year and then practiced law in Santa Fe.^[1] He also engaged in land speculation, and one of his land purchases led to a decades-long legal battle culminating in a 1914 U.S. Supreme Court decision.^[2]

In 1837, Watts married Elizabeth Howe. John and Elizabeth Watts had three children: Joshua Watts, John Watts Jr., and Fannie (Watts) Bancroft.^[3]

Watts died in Bloomington, Indiana on June 11, 1876, and was interred in Rose Hill Cemetery.^[1]

 This article incorporates public domain material from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress